I was under the impression for quite a while that Elite's ships used some kind of ion propulsion, and the hydrogen fuel kept onboard was just used to power a fusion power plant, which in turn provided the necessary power for the ion thrusters. That would explain why ships in 3300 can only achieve relatively slow speeds (and are always blue) in comparison to modern day spaceships; relativistic speeds and FTL are handled by the FSD, after all. Now, we have the ability to color our thrusters, which, as far as I know, doesn't make sense as far as ion thrust goes, so that leaves chemical thrusters as the solution, possibly using liquid hydrogen as fuel. This doesn't make any sense though, since liquid hydrogen engines are supposed to be extremely powerful, and any ship using them should be able to achieve much higher speeds than they do in game. Thoughts?
What kind of thrusters do ships use?
- Thread starter HereticPilot101
- Start date
The power plant is a hydrogen fusion plant. Hydrogen fuses into helium and is recovered. The regular thrusters are ion propulsion, but of a technology that would seem like magic to us 21st century cavemen.
The boosters use the helium produced by the fusion plant and you can see the extra helium being produced when the capacitor is drained. It gives the ship's computer its high pitched voice. Of course, helium boosters haven't even been thought of in the 21st century either.
The boosters use the helium produced by the fusion plant and you can see the extra helium being produced when the capacitor is drained. It gives the ship's computer its high pitched voice. Of course, helium boosters haven't even been thought of in the 21st century either.
Which is a nice explanation except that ion propulsion in the 21st century could use helium just fines once the electrons are stripped. But we don’t normally as heavier atoms give more specific impulse. So advances in the 33rd and 34th century could make up for that.
Sadly, that doesn’t explain the incredibly low top speed in normal space of Elite ships. Ion propulsion has lousy accelleration (excluding 34th century advancement) but has amazing top end speeds. This is why it is considered for long range missions in the 21st century. You can get an ion drive powered rocket up to a significant fraction of the speed of light. You can’t do that with a chemical rocket.
Considering that we can’t accelerate our Elite ships up to speeds that let us enter a stable orbit around even small planets, I am wondering about the engine choices in Elite too. I just take it as a decision to make the game more playable.
20th century supersonic jets go faster than the cruising speed of many Elite ships. Mach 2 is 340 m/s. The ISS orbits at 7660 m/s.
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That would have been true, except that in the 27th century, the scientist Newton Einstawkins was experimenting with a dark matter weapon that he assumed would end all wars.
His prototype device was charging when his assistant, Ignoramus Oopsulus spilled hot coffee on the device. The resulting explosion killed both individuals and caused all normal space in the Milky Way to be filled with the arcadey gamishphere that reacts weakly with most regular matter.
Ion drives began working like regular thrusters and projectile type weapons would slow down in space, losing their effectiveness after only a few KM. Lasers were also affected.
Luckily, the pseudo atmosphere didn't affect wormhole and gravity well drives, so travel by witchspace was still possible.
phuqing "gameplay" ruining it for the rest of us, as usual
I must have missed the Galnet article. Thanks for clarifying things.